048 Perusal
White background. ; Panel 1 Zane is sitting at one of the long tables in his great-uncle's antiques shop, looking through a scrapbook with newspaper clippings pasted in it. The bat in its cage is next to him, and there's a grandfather clock to his left. The grandfather clock only had one hand, and it has dropped off and is at the base of the clock face. The pendulum is not moving. The room is still a little dark, but it is notably lighter inside now that the windows are presumably cleaner. Zane is smiling and has a rather tender look on his face as he goes through the scrapbook. He says, "Well, quote second grand-uncle unquote Virgil, you sure were loved in this town." ; Panel 2. As Zane reads the scrapbook, he continues "Nothing here about other family. Never married or anything. He was a *Zane*, though. Has my dad's eyes." There are four clippings pasted on the page Zane is looking at. At the top left is a picture of a chessboard on a table. To the right of the chessboard, near the edge of the table, are a black queen piece, which could be a king, I'm not sure, a white pawn, a black bishop and another white pawn, all lined up in a sort of slightly curved shape. At the bottom left, partially covered by Zane's thumb, is an article. The headline is "Antiques Shop Owner Honored For Keeping Traditions Alive." The text of the article is as follows. Virgil Zane, owner of Antiques and Antiquities on Birch Street, received an honorary "Curator" award from the Broodhollow Historical Society on Tuesday. "In a town where tradition practically curates itself, I'm humbled to be the recipient of the Curator honor," Zane said surrounded by a small gathering in front of the Historical Society building. The text continues, but is cut off by the edge of the panel. At the bottom right is a large article, titled "Antiques Showcase A Little History And A Lot Of Heart." The subtitle is "'Antiques and Antiquities' On Birch A Fine View Into Broodhollow's Past." Underneath that is a large picture of Virgil, standing next to the same grandfather clock Zane is sitting by, although in the picture the single hand is pointing to the 5 and the pendulum is swinging. Virgil is a kind-looking old man, heavily wrinkled, wearing a button-down shirt and a bow-tie. He looks very similar to Zane. Their jawlines are very similar, and they both have a similar hairstyle, with tufts of hair at the front of their head, although Zane has two tufts, one bigger than the other, and Virgil has four, all the same size. The strip's artwork is stylized enough that all the characters have some resemblance, but with Zane and Virgil, in my opinion, it is pretty marked. Virgil is smiling for the camera and waving. The text of the article that is visible is as follows. "The past lives on! It's no surprise to Broodhollowans that antiques abound in our lovely, storied city - most of them in our own dusty attics. ... think they'd... The rest is cut off. At the top right is a small, cut-off article which reads as follows. Virgil Zane is the proprietor of "Antiques and Antiquities" and is no stranger to many of you. For years he's paid cash on the barrelhead for that dusty. The rest of the article is cut off. Edit March 24, 2013. Underneath the book and Zane's hand is the comics section of a newspaper. We see one comic of what appears to be a man talking to his dog, one Cadavre strip where the skeleton is talking to a sleeping cat, and another comic that appears to be titled "Bringing Up Father." ; Panel 3. Zane looks off in the distance, a small smile on his face, saying "His shop looks a lot *nicer* once you get all the cobwebs out of the corners! Maybe I can even get a better price for it if I can get some of this junk appraised." ; Panel 4. Zane looks dubiously at another of the long tables. On it are a blue pitcher and two tea cups sitting on saucers, all of which are dirty and cracked. Next to that is an assortment of small gears, what looks like a pinhole camera lying on its side, and two brown glass bottles with labels on them. In the background is the table he was sitting at before, piled with boxes and canisters, plus the bat in its cage. Zane says "Looks like most of it is junk though. Old gears. Worn old books. Chipped dishes. Gosh. A lot of the older items are so dirty-looking. *Sooty*, even. Does anyone *buy* this stuff?" ; Panel 5. Zane rests his arms on the table and puts his head down on them, looking at the two cups and saucers with a worried look in his eyes. He says "If I get attacked by giant spiders tonight for *fifty lousy cents* tomorrow, I'm gonna write Dr. Angstrom a *real* strong letter."